Thomas Shapcott

Last updated

Thomas Shapcott

AO
BornThomas William Shapcott
(1935-03-21) 21 March 1935 (age 89)
Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
OccupationPoet, novelist, playwright, editor, librettist, short story writer and teacher
Nationality Australian
Notable awards2000: Patrick White Award
SpouseMargaret Hodge (1960-?) [1]
Judith Rodriguez (1982-2018) [2]

Thomas William Shapcott AO (born 21 March 1935) [3] is an Australian poet, novelist, playwright, editor, librettist, short story writer and teacher.

Contents

Biography

Thomas William Shapcott [4] was born in Ipswich, Queensland, and attended the Ipswich Grammar School with his twin brother, who was born on the previous day (20 March 1935). (The writer is left-handed, but his twin is right-handed.) He left school at 15 to work in his father's accountancy business, but completed an accountancy degree in 1961. In 1967 he graduated in arts from the University of Queensland. [5]

His first artistic impulse was to be a composer. By age 19, he had written a number of works, but he turned away from music when he discovered a string quartet he had written unconsciously plagiarised a chamber work by Ernest Bloch. [6] He then worked as a tax accountant, a profession that he pursued for 27 years.

He was director of the Australia Council's Literature Board for seven years, and Executive Director of the National Book Council (1992–97). He was Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide. [7]

He has written 15 collections of poetry and 6 novels.

Thomas Shapcott was appointed an Officer (AO) of the Order of Australia in 1989. [4]

Selected list of works

Poetry collections

Novels

Short story collections

Young Adult

Non-fiction

Awards

See also

First Seed Ripening an album by Elixir and Katie Noonan. The tracks on this album are inspired by Shapcott's writing.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Paterson</span> Scottish poet, writer and musician (born 1963)

Donald Paterson is a Scottish poet, writer and musician. His work has won several awards, including the Forward Poetry Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He was recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gwen Harwood</span> Australian poet

Gwen Harwood was an Australian poet and librettist. Harwood is regarded as one of Australia's finest poets, publishing over 420 works, including 386 poems and 13 librettos. She won numerous poetry awards and prizes, and one of Australia's most significant poetry prizes, the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize is named for her. Her work is commonly studied in schools and university courses.

Robert William Geoffrey Gray is an Australian poet, freelance writer, and critic. He has been described as "an Imagist without a rival in the English-speaking world" and "one of the contemporary masters of poetry in English".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Malouf</span> Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and librettist

David George Joseph Malouf is an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and librettist. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008, Malouf has lectured at both the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney. He also delivered the 1998 Boyer Lectures.

Bruce Meyer is a Canadian poet, broadcaster, and educator. He has authored more than 64 books of poetry, short fiction, non-fiction, and literary journalism. He is a professor of Writing and Communications at Georgian College in Barrie and a Visiting Associate at Victoria College at the University of Toronto, where he has taught Poetry, Non-Fiction, and Comparative Literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Dawe</span> Australian poet and academic (1930–2020)

Donald Bruce Dawe was an Australian poet and academic. Some critics consider him one of the most influential Australian poets of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Wallace-Crabbe</span> Australian poet and emeritus professor

Christopher Keith Wallace-Crabbe is an Australian poet and emeritus professor in the Australian Centre, University of Melbourne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordie Albiston</span> Australian poet and academic (1961–2022)

Jordie Albiston was an Australian poet.

Rodney Hall AM is an Australian writer.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Douglas Stewart was a major twentieth century Australian poet, as well as short story writer, essayist and literary editor. He published 13 collections of poetry, 5 verse plays, including the well-known Fire on the Snow, many short stories and critical essays, and biographies of Norman Lindsay and Kenneth Slessor. He also edited several poetry anthologies.

The Grace Leven Prize for Poetry was an annual poetry award in Australia, given in the name of Grace Leven who died in 1922. It was established by William Baylebridge who "made a provision for an annual poetry prize in memory of 'my benefactress Grace Leven' and for the publication of his own work". Grace was his mother's half-sister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Queensland Press</span> Australian publishing house

University of Queensland Press (UQP) is an Australian publishing house based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in 1948 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the University of Queensland and a traditional university press, UQP now publishes books for general readers across fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and includes works for children and young adults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Holland-Batt</span> Australian poet and academic

Sarah Holland-Batt is a contemporary Australian poet, critic, and academic.

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1967.

Stuart Barnes is an Australian poet.

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1989.

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1990.

Russell Haley was a New Zealand poet, short story writer and novelist. Born in Yorkshire, he and his wife emigrated to Australia in 1961 and then to New Zealand in 1966, where he lived the rest of his life. He began publishing plays while living in Australia and his writing career continued in New Zealand, where he published several collections of poetry and short stories, and two novels. His work was known for its surrealism and imagination, and he also wrote about his life and personal experiences of moving between countries. In 1987 he received the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship.

References

  1. "SHAPCOTT, Thomas W(illiam)", in Contemporary Poets, 2nd edition; p. 1381; published 1975 by St. James Press; edited by James Vinson
  2. "In memory of Judith Rodríguez (1936-2018)". PEN International. 22 November 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  3. "Papers of Thomas Shapcott". Trove. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  4. 1 2 It's an Honour
  5. Australian Poets and their Works, by W. Wilde, Oxford University Press, 1996
  6. Jason Steger, Best wishes from Patrick White: $20,000 prize for a man of letters, Sydney Morning Herald , 11 November 2000, p. 5
  7. The Age , Easter Edition 25–26 March 2005, Review, p. 16
  8. National Library of Australia Theatre of darkness : Lillian Nordica as opera; Retrieved 11 August 2013